Comparison of chloroquine, sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine, mefloquine and mefloquine-artesunate for the treatment of falciparum malaria in Kachin State, North Myanmar.

Multi-drug resistant falciparum malaria is widespread in Asia. In Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam the national protocols have changed largely to artesunate combined treatment regimens but elsewhere in East and South Asia chloroquine (CQ) and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) are still widely recommended by national malaria control programmes. In Kachin State, northern Myanmar, an area of low seasonal malaria transmission, the efficacy of CQ (25 mg base/kg) and SP (1.25/25 mg/kg), the nationally recommended treatments at the time, were compared with mefloquine alone (M; 15 mg base/kg) and mefloquine combined with artesunate (MA; 15:4 mg/kg). An open randomized controlled trial enrolled 316 patients with uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria, stratified prospectively into three age-groups. Early treatment failures (ETF) occurred in 41% (32/78) of CQ treated patients and in 24% of patients treated with SP (18/75). In young children the ETF rates were 87% after CQ and 35% after SP. Four children (two CQ, two SP) developed symptoms of cerebral malaria within 3 days after treatment. By day 42, failure rates (uncorrected for reinfections) had increased to 79% for CQ and 81% for SP. ETF rates were 2.5% after treatment with M and 3.9% after treatment with MA (P > 0.2). Overall uncorrected treatment failure rates at day 42 following M and MA were 23% and 21%, respectively. Chloroquine and SP are completely ineffective for the treatment of falciparum malaria in northern Myanmar. Mefloquine treatment is much more effective, but three day combination regimens with artesunate will be needed for optimum efficacy and protection against resistance

Co-doping red-emitting Sr2Si5N8:Eu2+ into yellow-emitting phosphor-packaging for enhancing the optical properties of the 8500 K remote-phosphor packaging wleds

In the last decades, WLEDs attract more and more consideration in both academic and industrial purposes because of its advantages such as fast response time, environment friendliness, small size, long lifetime, and high efficiency. In this research, by doping the red-emitting Sr2Si5N8:Eu2+ phosphor particles into yellow-emitting YAG:Ce phosphor-packaging, a new recommendation for enhancing the optical properties (color uniformity, color rendering index, and lumen output) of the 8500 K remote-phosphor packaging WLEDs is presented, investigated, and demonstrated. By using Mat Lab and Light Tools software based on Mie Theory, the obtained results show that the optical properties of the 8500 K remote-phosphor packaging WLEDs significantly depended on Sr2Si5N8:Eu2+ concentration. The results have provided a potential practical recommendation for manufacturing remote-phosphor W-LEDs.Web of Science1341034102

Persepsi dan Partisipasi Petani dalam Pelaksanaan Rehabilitasi Tanaman Kakao di Kabupaten Sigi Provinsi Sulawesi Tengah

Persepsi petani terhadap suatu program merupakan landasan atau dasar utama bagi timbulnya kesediaan untuk ikut terlibat atau berpartisipasi dalam suatu program. Penelitian bertujuan: 1) Menganalisis persepsi petani, 2) Menganalisis tingkat partisipasi petani dalam pelaksanaan rehabilitasi kakao, 3) Menganalisis hubungan karakteristik internal dan eksternal dengan persepsi, serta 4) Menganalisis hubungan karakteristik internal dan eksternal dengan partisipasi petani. Penelitian dilaksanakan pada Februari-Maret 2015 di Kecamatan Palolo Kabupaten Sigi. Jumlah sampel 100 orang dan merupakan petani yang terlibat dalam program gernas kakao. Data yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini terdiri dari data primer dan data sekunder. Data yang diperoleh dianalisis secara statistik deskriptif dan statistik inferensial (Rank Spearman). Hasil penelitian menunjukkan persepsi dan tingkat partisipasi petani terhadap program gernas kakao cukup baik. Karakteristik internal yang berhubungan dengan persepsi petani adalah variabel kosmopolitan dan luas lahan garapan. Faktor eksternal yang berhubungan dengan persepsi adalah dukungan pasar, ketersediaan tenaga kerja, ketersediaan informasi, kelompok tani serta intensitas penyuluhan. Karakteristik internal yang berhubungan dengan partisipasi adalah pengalaman USAha tani, luas lahan garapan dan kosmopolitan. Faktor eksternal tidak berhubungan dengan partisipasi

Two-component Bose-Einstein Condensates with Large Number of Vortices

We consider the condensate wavefunction of a rapidly rotating two-component Bose gas with an equal number of particles in each component. If the interactions between like and unlike species are very similar (as occurs for two hyperfine states of $^{87}$Rb or $^{23}$Na) we find that the two components contain identical rectangular vortex lattices, where the unit cell has an aspect ratio of $\sqrt{3}$, and one lattice is displaced to the center of the unit cell of the other. Our results are based on an exact evaluation of the vortex lattice energy in the large angular momentum (or quantum Hall) regime.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, RevTe

Implementation of a communication curriculum in undergraduate dental education-students' opinions during a 5-year development phase.

INTRODUCTION Communication training has become an essential part of the dental curriculum. The aim of this study was to evaluate the communication curriculum developed and introduced 2016-2021 at the University of Bern, School of Dental Medicine (SDM), Switzerland. MATERIALS AND METHODS The curriculum was implemented cumulatively in three phases: (1) lectures and accompanying role plays, (2) forum theatre and trainer-based communication training and (3) self-assessment. Students were surveyed 2016-2021 at the end of each semester using anonymous online questionnaires with five-point Likert scales (0-4). RESULTS A total of 191 fourth- and fifth-year students were surveyed, and 165 (86.4%) questionnaires were analysed. The mean age of the participants was 24.2 ± 1.4 and 45.5% were female. While students' opinions about the need to communicate increased during weekly lectures in phase 1, their opinions about their ability to communicate simultaneously decreased. During phase 2, fourth-year students' opinions on the need to communicate with dental patients increased from 3.22 ± 0.61 to 3.73 ± 0.45 (p = .001), anticipated benefits for dentists increased from 2.78 ± 0.71 to 3.43 ± 0.57 (p = .001) and for patients from 3.00 ± 0.76 to 3.47 ± 0.63 (p = .022). Only in phase 3, opinions on the ability to communicate statistically significantly increased for both fourth- (2.34 ± 0.71 to 2.72 ± 0.60, p = .033) and fifth-year (2.20 ± 0.63 to 2.86 ± 0.59, p = .001) students. Preferred teaching and assessment methods were trainer-based communication trainings (73.1%), lectures (67.3%) and self-assessments in the student clinic (59.6%). CONCLUSION Communication curricula in dental education using methods such as lectures and trainer-based communication trainings may additionally need to include self-assessments to be effective from the students' perspective

Nd:LNA Laser Optical Pumping Of ⁴He: Application To Space Magnetometers

We have observed Hanle signals and n=0, p=1 parametric resonances of 23S1 metastable helium atoms in a discharge cell by optically pumping the helium atoms with a tunable Nd:LNA laser. These resonances were used to construct a sensitive magnetometer for the measurement of very small magnetic fields. Since magnetometer sensitivity is proportional to the slope of the parametric resonance signal (signal amplitude divided by linewidth), the slopes for single-line laser pumping were compared with similar quantities obtained from conventional helium lamp pumping. Laser pumping yielded 45 times greater slopes with comparable power requirements, thus establishing the potential for developing ultrasensitive resonance magnetometers using single-line laser pumping

Cooperative Ring Exchange and Quantum Melting of Vortex Lattices in Atomic Bose-Einstein Condensates

Cooperative ring-exchange is suggested as a mechanism of quantum melting of vortex lattices in a rapidly-rotating quasi two dimensional atomic Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). Using an approach pioneered by Kivelson et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 56}, 873 (1986)] for the fractional quantized Hall effect, we calculate the condition for quantum melting instability by considering large-correlated ring exchanges in a two-dimensional Wigner crystal of vortices in a strong `pseudomagnetic field' generated by the background superfluid Bose particles. BEC may be profitably used to address issues of quantum melting of a pristine Wigner solid devoid of complications of real solids.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, to appear in Physical Review

Fragmented and Single Condensate Ground States of Spin-1 Bose Gas

We show that the ground state of a spin-1 Bose gas with an antiferro- magnetic interaction is a fragmented condensate in uniform magnetic fields. The number fluctuations in each spin component change rapidly from being enormous (order $N$) to exceedingly small (order 1) as the magnetization of the system increases. A fragmented condensate can be turned into a single condensate state by magnetic field gradients. The conditions for existence and the method of detecting fragmented states are presented.Comment: 4 pages, no figure